WASHINGTON - At least 80 wealthy liberals have pledged to contribute at least $1 million each to fund a network of think tanks and advocacy groups, to compete with the potent conservative infrastructure built up during the last three decades.

The money will be channeled through a new partnership called the Democracy Alliance, founded last spring in a series of liberal initiatives as the Democratic Party and its allies struggle with the loss of power in Congress and the White House. Many influential Democratic contributors were left angry and despairing about the party's poor showing in last year's elections, and are looking for more effective ways to invest their support.

Financial commitments totaling at least $80 million in the next five years at a time when some other liberal groups, such as the George Soros-backed America Coming Together, are floundering — suggest the Democracy Alliance is becoming a player in the long-term effort to reinvigorate the left. The group has a goal of raising $200 million, a sum that would inevitably come partly at the expense of more traditional Democratic groups.

Alliance chairman Steven Gluckstern, a retired investment banker, said President Bush's victory over Sen. John Kerry after millions were put into pro-Democratic "527" groups caused many contributors to think that a dramatically new approach was needed.

"It wasn't only the failure to win, it was the question 'what does it take to win?' " Gluckstern said. "Among the lessons learned was that to bring back the progressive majority in this country is not just a periodic election investment strategy."

Mirroring conservatives

The Democracy Alliance will act as a financial clearing house. Its staff and board of directors will develop a list of established and proposed groups they think will develop and promote ideas on the left. To fulfill their million-dollar pledge, partners must agree to give $200,000 or more a year for at least five years to alliance-endorsed groups.

The alliance is the brainchild of long-time Democratic strategist Rob Stein, who spent years studying conservative groups, particularly their successes in sustaining GOP politicians and achieving many of their policy goals. Simon Rosenberg, president of the New Democrat Network, is working with Stein and is a leading promoter of his effort.

Rosenberg said liberals and Democrats face a conservative "information-age Tammany Hall, a 21st Century political machine, that is simply better than what we have on our side.